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The ingredients are very simple," down-and-dirty-rock veteran Jon Spencer says of rockabilly, the manic three-chord genre that is the blueprint for the music of Heavy Trash, the Blues Explosion frontman's project with Canadian-born Matt Verta-Ray.
"But," he continues, "it's like cooking: You think there's not much in this but it's hard to get it just right so it tastes good.
"It's a very strange kind of music: It seems so simple and even limited in a way, but it's also so expressive. It seemed so wild, and it was really a chance for a lot of crazy people to let loose."
Spencer, one of the most dynamic performers in rock 'n' roll's crazy, wild world, has never exactly required an excuse to let loose. But when Madder Rose alumnus Verta-Ray came calling, Spencer was ready and able to take things up a notch.
And, though the Heavy Trash album is essentially the work of a duo, Spencer also knew just who to call when it came time to bring his high-energy vision to the stage.
"I saw The Sadies playing with Neko Case in February of last year, when Matt and I were just finishing the record," Spencer recalls.
"And I thought, well, maybe they could be the Heavy Trash band."
As we've been fortunate to see many times in our fair city, Toronto's Sadies can in fact be just about any band they want to be when brothers Dallas and Travis Good set their minds to it.
Hell, they'll even be playing the part of Heavy Trash's opening band at Friday's show.
"They'll be working hard," Spencer says of his North American bandmates. (Spencer and Verta-Ray tour Europe with a different version of Heavy Trash.)
"It's just an honour and a treat to be able to play with those guys."
Hence, Spencer says, the second Heavy Trash release will be a full-band effort.
"With the second record our aim is to work with some of these musicians we've been playing with out on the road," he explains. "So when we're up in Canada we're going to go into the studio to record some stuff. Then, in June, we'll tour Europe and do the same with the European band."